Époisses de Bourgogne (Burgundy)

I bought Époisses de Bourgogne only once. The cheese was very expensive and was available for a short period of time.
It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte loved it. It's hard to write a review of the cheese if you haven't tasted it a few times. Sometimes my sense of taste cant't appreciate such a complex cheese. I hope I will be given a second chance to recognize how really good is Époisses de Bourgogne.


There are a few factors which tells me that I should love the cheese. It is artisanal made in France from a pungent unpasteurized cow's milk. The cheese mature in cellar for at least six weeks. During the process,  is rinsed up to 3-5 times per week in a mixture of water and marc de Bourgogne (local pomace brandy). Each cheese is also brushed by hand to spread the bacteria evenly over the surface.The intensive orange-red exterior is the result of yeast fermentation. The stinky rind covers meaty,salty, pudding-like interior.

Époisses - I'm waiting for you!

Ossau-Iraty (Aquitaine, Pyrenées Atlantiques)

I haven't eaten the cheese for a long time (update: It came back at the and end of 2011) but it's hard to forget its firm, orange-yellow to gray rind. A rind is my favorite part of the most cheeses. It often has more flavor than a paste. Alike a  bread crust which I found tastier than a crumb.
The shepherds from the French  Pyrénées has been making cheese for centuries. Ossau Iraty is made with the milk of the Manech and Basco-Bearnaise ewes. It is dried and regularly rubbed for 3 months and further   aged in the Artisanal Premium Cheese caves until its paste turns a luscious ivory. The cheese is sweet and buttery and the closer to its  rind  the more it resembles toasted hazelnuts.

Idiazábal (Navarra, Basque region)

Idiazábal name comes from the town in the Basque province of Guipúzkoa.  Full of aroma from Lacha sheep is used to produce the cheese. It ripens from to to six months in humid cellars. Idiazábal has waxy yellow rind and beige, compact interior. The holes are hardly visible. The flavor is buttery and slightly piquant.
Some of ripened batches are smoked with hawthorn or cherry wood. It gives the rind a cooper-like color. It also strengthens its flavor and make the paste drier and more aromatic.



I only have a chance to taste the cheese  once a few months ago and it didn't make an impression on me.

Roquefort(Midi- Pyrenées, Averyon)

According to the legend, Roquefort came being in the caves where a shepherd  enchented by a beautiful girl left his lunch: milk and bread. The shepherd was looking for the girl for a few days without success. To make the matter worse, he found his meal covered in mold. He was to hungry to resist eating his rotten lunch,  and to his suprise, he found it delicious.

Legendary shepard's meal was declared by Charlemagne his favorite cheese; then in 1411 Charles IV signed a charter giving the inhibitants of the southern French village of Roquefort in Aveyron: "  the privilege to mature the cheeses as it has always been done in the caves of the aforementioned village".

 Roquefort is made from raw milk of Lacaune sheep - the only breed which can survive in severe mountain climate. The cheese is matured only in the caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, where it develops its piquant, salty, strong flavor and intensive aroma. Mature Roquefort is ivory in color, litlle crumbly and full of mold traces.

Mozzarella di Bufala (Caserata, Salerno, Frosinone, Latina, Naples, Benevento, Rome)

Nothing compares to Mozzarella di Bufala . The name comes from the word mozzare and means "to cut off". Each section (about 4kg) of cheese is cut off from the kneaded mass and then shaped into balls or plaited . Only Mozzarella di Bufala Campana carries the protected origin designation. Mozzarella is made from rich milk of black water buffalo.



A ball of cheese is porcelain white in color...



and resilient.



Its inner structure is flaky and it has refreshing, slightly tart flavor.

The cheese is expensive but worth trying even to compare to cow's milk mozzarella which is produced throughout Europe, in the USA and Australia.

Queso Manchego/Iberico (Spain)

Produced in La Mancha in Central Spain, Manchego is made from 100% sheep’s milk. Due to climate conditions ( raw, cold winters and dry summers) milk is  exceptionally fatty and aromatic.

It is easily recognized by the zigzag pattern etched into its rind and moist interior with tiny holes.

Manchego can be ripened from two to six months. Young (fresco) has fresh and elegant flavor, older (curado) is more salty, piquant and aromatic. The oldest (anjeo) ripens up to two years and becomes extra hard.

Iberico is a Manchego-style cheese made from a blend of cow (50%), goat (30%) and sheep’s milk (10%). Interesting, Iberico cheese is produced only in the province of Valladolid in central Spain. 

The interior paste has a light yellow/ white to slight beige color, mild  aroma and interesting flavor.

Both are great as table cheeses; they also melt well and delicious in omelets or salads (Snow Pea Salad with Manchego).
Recipes:
Broccoli Rabe with Chestnuts and Iberico

Normandy Camembert (Basse-Normandie/Département Calavados)

Normandy Camembert is extremely tasty. I’ve eaten it only three times so far but I do remember how delicious it is . I love the lightly waved rind, so delicate and thin -almost transparent. The mass is white or yellow, soft and just a little  runny. The more ripened the softer, smoother and more elastic it is.




According to the General meeting Constitutive of the Trade union of the Manufacturers of Genuine Camembert cheese of Normandy the Camembert de Normandie is :  a soft cheese, with spontaneous draining, neither cooked, neither pressed, nor mixed, with curd not divided, slightly salted, with surface molds, of round form, a weight of 350g, a maximum diameter from 10 to 11 cm, containing at least 40g of fat content for 100g, made with pure milk of Normandy.
Even the cheese is 200 years old it didn't obtained the AOC (controlled designation of origin) until 1983. Due to its popularity it was the most copied soft cheese in the history.

Bleu d'Auvergne (Fromageries Occitanes, Auvergne/Cantal)

 Bleu d'Auvergne is (really) moist, buttery and salty ; has ivory color and is  generously veined with bluish-green molds; I wish I could buy it again. I really miss the cheese and I find it much tastier than Roquefort.

Bleu d'Auvergne was invented in the mid-1850s by a French cheesemaker named Antoine Roussel.  He noticed  blue spots (similar to those growing on breads) on his cheeses maturing in the cellars. He was attracted by the flavor of the blueness and found it "special, pleasant and scented".  He decided to apply a rye bread mold to the curd to create the veining. He also noticed that  pricking the curd with a needle  increased aeration and let the mold to enter the curd and supported its growth. Soon, many other cheese-makers adapted pricing to produce their own blue cheeses.



 In 1975 the cheese obteined  Appellation d’origine contrôlée (meaning"controlled designation of origin") certifications from the French government.